Left-handed catchers

[Snakes Gould]

yeah but how often do runners steal 3rd anyway. its advantageus to have a lefthanded 1b for pickoffs but there are still many righthanded 1b. there are also tons of left handed OF's as well so im not buying the whole grooming to be pitchers argument either. its mostly because catcher's mitts are the team's property growing up and there are so few left handed ones. although im not going to lie, i have seen about 5 in my day and this was probably anywhere from me being 10-14 years old.

[05worldserieschamps]

No one steals third anymore anyway. Lefty's would have a huge advantage on pickoffs to first. When a righty catcher trys to pick someone off, he has to jump up, rotate his body giving the runner more time and recognition. Where as a lefty can just make the throw, their shoulders are already there.

But leftys/rightys have the same amount of difficulty in terms of throwing to second. There is no disadvantage there.

[teddy ballgame]

yeah but how often do runners steal 3rd anyway.

That's kind of the point. Not many steal 3rd because it's easy to get thrown out since all the catchers are right handed. If there were left handed catchers I think people would start stealing it more often.

[Half Massed]

yeah but how often do runners steal 3rd anyway.

That's kind of the point. Not many steal 3rd because it's easy to get thrown out since all the catchers are right handed. If there were left handed catchers I think people would start stealing it more often.

Exactly. They would have the same disadvantage as righties trying to pick a guy off of first, but with a greater consequence for failure. My bet is that there would be more poor throws also since the lefty catcher would have to rush to make up the time lost by shifting his body.

[TopHatCat]

yeah but how often do runners steal 3rd anyway.

That's kind of the point. Not many steal 3rd because it's easy to get thrown out since all the catchers are right handed. If there were left handed catchers I think people would start stealing it more often.

In today's money ball game, I still don't think managers would risk the out at third when the guy is already in scoring position at second. Plus, if the base runner had enough speed to steal third, he'd have enough speed to score from second base on a single

[Snakes Gould]

im not disagreeing that a left handed catcher would have a harder time throwing out a base stealer at 3rd, but i dont think that it is the number one reason why there arent left handed catchers.

baseball is such a traditional game that it takes so much to even slightly alter the game. there havent been left-handed catchers in the past so there arent any now. it could very well change down the line.

[Padsin05]

actually its easier for a right-hander to pick someone off at first, the snap throw to first is much easier then throwing across your body, its a dead give away and you would never pick anyone off as well as its a longer throw, but thats not the reason why catchers arent left handed. Throwing to 3rd would be easier/snap throw for a lefty then a righty.

While this isnt necessarily true, I believe these are the 2 strongest reasons I have always felt as why there are no left handed catchers.

1) When setting up behind the plate your glove hand foot (if that makes sense) is slightly in front of your throwing foot, and your glove hand being out gives you a slight angle to see the runner in your perephrial (spelling) vision. A lefty on the other hand would have his body slighty skewed towards 3b blocking that 1st base vision.

2) Lefties generally cant throw straight. Their ball always sails back to the left. Considering that the throw to second has to be the most "straight" throw in baseball, it is something else to consider. Lefties would tend to sail the ball towards the shortstop side of the bag, where as if it sails from a RH catcher it would goto the second base side of the bag and still give an opportunity to make a tag up the line

These are both my theories and are up for debate, but they seem pretty reasonable to me

ps I am lefthanded and caught into college ranks and those were my problems primarily